Strategies of linking weak-binding molecular fragments together to produce a significantly stronger ligand molecule have been implemented in drug discovery. Tweezer-like molecules have also been designed recently in the area of host-guest chemistry to control the specific complexation of artificial receptors (hosts) with small molecules (guests). In these applications, the linking bridge is normally optimized and often rigidified to achieve maximal affinity of the bivalent molecule. Bivalent and polyvalent ligands have been reported that incorporate multiple copies of a single binding moeity on a polymer backbone.
It is an object of the invention to provide multivalent binding molecules containing linkers through which binding can be modulated.